Punjabi

Punjabi (also known as Pañjābī) is a member of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. Eastern Punjabi is spoken as a first language primarily in the state of Punjab of India by 28.2 million people (Ethnologue). Western Punjabi (also known as Lahnda) is spoken by 60.6 million people in the Punjab province of Pakistan (Ethnologue). There are also speakers of these dialects in a number of other countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, United Kingdom, the U.S., and Canada. Nationalecyklopedin estimates the total number of first-language speakers of Punjabi at 100 million.

Ancestors of the Punjabis are thought to have inhabited the Indus Valley at least as far back as 2,500 BCE. Indo-Aryan invasions had a significant effect on the language of the ancient Punjabis with the result that, like other Indo-Aryan languages, Punjabi evolved from Sanskrit through Prakrit, the latter being a large group of ancient Indic languages spoken between the 6th and the 13th centuries AD.

Status

Eastern Punjabi is one of the 22 official languages and 14 regional languages of India. It is the medium of everyday communication in the Indian state of Punjab. It is used in education, government, business and in the media.

Western Punjabi has no official status in Pakistan. Punjabi speakers in Pakistan use Urdu and English in government administration, the media, and education, as well as in most writing.

Punjabi is the religious language of the Sikhs. It is also the language of the popular Bhangra folk dance and singing.

Dialects

There are numerous varieties of Punjabi that create a virtual continuum between Western and Eastern varieties of the language. For the most part, the dialects are mutually intelligible, even though there are differences in pronunciation and vocabulary. Punjabi expatriates around the world speak a creolized form of the language that is increasingly deviating from the norms of Punjabi spoken in India and Pakistan. Creolization is a process whereby a language evolves by incorporating elements of more than one language.

Structure

Punjabi has ten vowel phonemes, i.e., sounds that make a difference in word meaning. Vowels can be short or long. Vowel length is marked by a macron, e.g., ā. Vowels can also be oral or nasal. Nasalization distinguishes word meaning. It is usually marked by a tilde over the vowel, e.g., ã.

There is a contrast between aspirated vs. unaspirated voiceless stops and affricates, e.g., p—pʰ, t—tʰ, k—kʰ, tʃ – tʃʰ. Aspirated consonants are produced with a strong puff of air.

There is a contrast between and apical vs. retroflex consonants, e.g., /t/ – /ʈ/, /d/ – /ɖ/, /n/ – /ɳ/,/l/ – /ɭ/, /r/ – /ɽ/. Apical consonants are produced with the tip of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth, whereas retroflex consonants are produced with the tongue curled, so that its underside comes in contact with the roof of the mouth.

Tones
Punjabi has three tones: High, Mid, and Low. The tone of a word is a pitch pattern permanently associated with it. A change of tone changes the meaning of a word.

Stress
Stress in Punjabi can fall on any syllable of a word, and can differentiate otherwise identical words. In general, stress falls on the penultimate (one before last) syllable unless the syllable ends in a short vowel. If so, then the stress fall on the antepenultimate (second from the end) syllable.

Grammar

Punjabi grammar is similar to that of other Indo-Aryan languages. Like all these languages, Punjabi is agglutinative, i.e., it adds suffixes to roots to build words and to express grammatical relations.

Nouns, adjectives
Punjabi nouns are marked for the following grammatical categories:

The basic vocabulary of Punjabi is Sanskrit in origin, but over the years Punjabi has borrowed words from other languages. Eastern Punjabi has many Hindi and English loanwords, while Western Punjabi contains many borrowings from Persian, Arabic and Urdu.

Writing

Punjabi’s literary tradition started at the end of the 16th century after the development of the Gurmukhi script, even though there are some literary pieces dating back to the 12th century AD. Today, Punjabi is written with three different scripts.

Within the Indian state of Punjab, Sikhs tend to use the Gurmukhi script. Like Devanagari, Gurmukhi is a script in which each consonant has an inherent [a] vowel which can be modified by vowel symbols that can be attached to the consonant. Gurmukhi has 53 symbols. Like Devanagari, Gurmukhi is written from left to right.

3 Responses to Punjabi

I have an interest, in the Indus Valley civilization . My quest to understand that civilization has led me to believe that the present languages of Pakistan ( Punjabi , Sindhi and Seraiki ) must contain some words and even structures from the ancient language of Harappa and Mohenjadaro .

There are also,semi related, two, other sets , of questions that I am seeking answers to.

1. There are words used in common usage , like Salada or Selada ( half man half animal, with ability to appear and disappear ), phopokutni ( wise women in a negative sense ) , Chawal ( bad person ), these seem to be a part of some ancient myths , but the myths and stories associated with these are not a part of the common Punjabi consciousness , in fact the first listed is only familiar to people of central Punjab. Are these related to some mythology and if so why have the myths not survived . Adding to this are words which have no apparent roots, like the word ” kuri” a young girl , does not seem to have any linkages with either Sanskrit or Persian/Arabic sources.

2. There is this theory that the Chinese settled in North Punjab before emigrating to the Chinese Mainland. The tonal nature of the Chinese language and Punjabi suggest some linkages. Could there be linkages between Chinese or Munda myths and the above referred lost Punjabi myths. A Jat tribe of Punjab , Cheema , is linked to Chima or China and there are Munda linkages suggested with the origin of this tribe.

I would be grateful if you could point me the way to seek theses answers.
Any inconvenience is regretted .
Best regards , kindly respond to my email jarad_us@yahoo.com